A Standalone Camera Is The Favourite Travelling Gadget Of Backpackers A New Survey Shows

A new survey conducted by the TNT Travel show team on over 1,000 backpackers that travel for a longer period and are aged between 18 to 35, revealed some interesting conclusions: the majority of backpackers ‘prefer to leave smartphone at home’, value more word-of-mouth advice for the best travel recommendations and have as a favourite traveling gadget a standalone camera.

According to the results of the survey, the majority of travelers value more word-of-mouth advice than suggestions from social networking sites. In fact, 73% of the interviewed people prefer to speak directly to others and find out travel tips rather than doing that using smartphones. This is, definitely, an important conclusion that needs to be taken in consideration by all companies (e.g. hotels, service providers etc.) in the travel industry.

Also, it seems that the majority of backpackers (85% of those who have Blackberries and 68% of those who have iPhones) actually prefer to leave the smartphones at home when traveling, even if these devices have Internet connections, navigation programs, cameras and so on.

The most useful gadget is a simple standalone camera. Kevin Ellis, the chief executive of the TNT Travel Show, quoted by The Telegraph said: “Our survey shows that even if the good old-fashioned holiday postcard is disappearing into youth tourism’s sunset, nevertheless our audience loves human contact. They believe it’s simply not smart to spend your travel time gazing at a smartphone.”

Now what do you think of these findings? Do you have the same preferences? Does this survey represent all of you who are globetrotting/backpacking?